Button-Down Central Bank Bets It All

By

Brian Blackstone and

David Wessel

Jan. 8, 2013 10:31 p.m. ET

ZURICH—Switzerland, for decades a paragon of safety in finance, is engaged in a high-risk strategy to protect its export-driven economy, literally betting the bank in a fight to contain the prices of Swiss products sold abroad.

The nation's central bank is printing and selling as many Swiss francs as needed to keep its currency from climbing against the euro, wagering an amount approaching Switzerland's total national output, and, in...